Thread by @TheStoryOfPain

Happy New Year-
Let's start the new year right
The last line of our film about Dr. Sarno (who pioneered a mindbody approach to pain) is, "All of this because of one one simple idea, the fact that the mind and the body are intimately connected. That's it that's the whole story."

This concept is central to all mind body related work. The physical and the emotional are not separate. They are inextricably linked. If we understand that this is true, then we can agree that health care needs to address both emotional and physical processes.

This idea is often met with the confused resistance, hearing that physical symptoms are being dismissed as "all in one's head". This is not the case. However, it does mean that we can't ignore the powerful role of emotions in regards to our physical being.

While awareness of the mindbody connection is embedded in the language of health care, our cultural/social resistance to emotions often makes the discussion fraught. The definition of pain is "a physical AND emotional response to tissue damage, or the PERCEPTION of tissue damage"

In other words, all pain is both physical and emotional. Further, we don't need to have tissue damage to have pain. Instead, we simply have to be afraid of it. Fear is often a major component of pain. In our film about Dr Sarno we include a scene of my daughter having blood drawn

She was terrified of it, and I worked to make her more comfortable for a half an hour. Eventually the nurse drew the blood. Afterwards she was upset that she would have to do it again at some point in the distant. Fear, rather than physical damage caused that pain.

Dr Sarno came to connect pain with profound resistance to our emotions. He connected two important awarenesses. First, most of the physical attributions of his patient's pain (often back or shoulder pain) did not correlate with the physical diagnosis they had been given.

For example, they may have been given a diagnosis of a herniated disc, but the pain did not correlate with the disc herniation. Or, they may have pulled a muscle, but the muscle failed to heal over time. Further, many of the treatments he had been taught did not make sense to him

When he examined the data to support bed rest, traction, heat, electric stimulation, etc, he found that the studies were inconclusive or deeply flawed. He also found that they didn't help his patients. So, he started to look more deeply at his patients medical histories.

He found that more than 80% had other issues like migraines, colitis, eczema, and ulcer's which were largely accepted as being connected to stress. He began to talk more deeply with his patients and found that they tended to be hard working people, often perfectionists

who tended to put a great deal of pressure on themselves to be "good". He described them as "goodists", people who often pushed themselves to do for others, which often meant that they had to repress their own feelings and emotions.

When he pointed this out to them, and they connected their back pain to things like job stress, living with a mother in law, or a relationship that felt severely out of balance, the patients often were able to very quickly move past what had been persistent pain.

Dr. Sarno began to work closely with therapists and prescribed journaling as a tool to connect with one's emotions. He also began to include weekly lectures as part of his treatment program, utilizing ever increasing amounts of data that confirmed many of his thoughts.

I came to make a film about Dr Sarno (w/ my partners David Beilinson and Suki Hawley) because I had a long personal history with his work. My father, who was a psychologist, suffered from ulcers- and later from back pain, was saved from it when a friend gave him Dr Sarno's book.

A decade later my brother was saved from 2 years of crippling hand pain after visiting Dr. Sarno in his office. I read the book at that point and banished recurrent back pain for a decade. When it crushed me to the floor in 2004, I ended up in his office. That's when we started

to make a film about his work. We wanted to make a "verite", in process documentary, following Dr Sarno as he worked. Ethically, he couldn't introduce us to patients, and while he had a new book come out, he didn't do any promotion. We also could not find any support for a film

While I slowly got better, we struggled to move forward on the film and it stalled for 5 years. Then I got slammed to the floor again in 2011. When it happened (it had been getting worse for weeks) I screamed, "grab the camera", because I knew that in order to make the film

I would have to be in it. I spent over 20 days stuck on the floor of my office, unable to sit up or turn over. That kind of pain is clarifying. I could see, and feel, my thoughts affecting my body. The question still remained, how to stop that from happening? Its been a long road

As I recovered I began to do research and found that many other doctors, in other fields, had made the same profound connection between mind and body.@DrGaborMate had written "When the Body Says No", describing people who repressed their emotions so much that their bodies said no

Dr Mate, made the connection between auto immune conditions and suppression of emotions. Dr David Clarke, a gastroenterologist, wrote "They Can't find Anything Wrong" about how, many gut issues are related to emotional pain and trauma. He cured thousands of people with awareness

More recently @DrWayneJonas described a similar path to awareness in his book, "How Healing Works". While each doctor brings their own experience to their healing work, all of these doctors agree on a very simple idea. The body has an innate ability to heal its self.

While awareness of the importance of accepting our emotions is important to healing, everyone has their own pathway to finding ways of activating and supporting that process. Some people benefit more powerfully from journalling than others. Some people from meditation..

At the same time, it's important to recognize that we can not think our way out mind body health issues. In fact, it is often overthinking, or more accurately over worrying, that can be detrimental.

I am not a doctor. I am an artist/filmmaker who has delved deeply into this story for many years. I don't have "the answer", but I do believe I can help point people in the direction of healing. People who watch our film, which is quite personal often want to know how I'm doing

After screenings that question comes up and I always say that I have the incurable disease of being human. In other words, I understand that my emotions will come and go. I can't stop that process. Awareness helps me to avoid the kind of patterns of thinking that perpetuates

the problems of fear and catastrophizing that can make pain chronic. Acute pain and chronic pain show up in different areas of our brain. Chronic pain is a learned response to the fear of pain. @HSchubiner has written a book that builds on Dr Sarno's work. "Unlearn Your Pain"

This book and @pain_md_la book, "The Mindbody Workbook" are powerful tools in helping to unwind the patterns that often keep us stuck. My own healing benefitted a great deal from Michael Brown's 10 week meditation program "The Presence Process".

All of these tools, and connection to a much larger community, has deepened that healing. Still, I occasionally get back pain. Awareness that this too shall past is the strongest tool that I have. 2019 and 2020 were difficult years but these tools and beginning a yoga practice

have helped me immensely. Many people find the @curablehealth app an essential tool to finding greater awareness and connection to their emotions. There are many support groups on Facebook like TMS - The Mindbody Syndrome - and the TMS Roundtable Global are great resources.

Again, I wish a healthy and happy new year for all. Expanding awareness of how our emotions interact with our physical body is a great practice for starting the new year right. This work is not always easy, but it is powerful. Don't be afraid to reach out to others for support

because often times we try to carry to much by ourselves. When we learn to accept support we can often find more balance in our lives.

for more info about the film visit alltheragedoc.com

So many other resources too @HilaryJHendel it’s not always depression and @YourTruthNow - @sirpauk

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